An East London borough has admitted that a £40 million loan which helped Premier League club West Ham move into the Olympic stadium may never be repaid.

Newham council said the loan was “damaged” and would only be recouped if the sports and music venue started making money. But town hall insiders said the borough appeared to have given up any hope of getting back the cash because of the poor financial performance of the stadium.

Newham insisted that it had not “written off” the loan and that downgrading its status was merely “prudent and responsible” accounting in response to the stadium’s “challenging” first year in its new guise. But councillors and residents expressed concern as the borough, one of the most deprived in the country, is facing cuts.

Newham Labour councillor Rokhsana Fiaz, a member of the audit board and the council’s chairman of scrutiny, said: “It’s alarming for residents to read about a £44.4 million impairment relating to a loan Newham council has given to refurbish West Ham’s stadium via a company it owns. I’ve asked for urgent clarification and details including any further financial implications facing Newham council.

“Residents need reassurances that their money hasn’t been wasted and that the financial benefits promised from this much-heralded council investment continue to flow.”

READ MORE'The stadium is better for World Champs than during London 2012' - CoeThe £40 million deal was agreed by the council in 2012, through its subsidiary company Newham Legacy Investments Ltd, with the London Legacy Development Corporation.

The joint venture, through the umbrella company E20 Stadium, was to pay for the refurbishment and transformation costs of the stadium after the Games to make it suitable for football.

The LLDC originally invested £257 million for refurbishment costs and West Ham just £15 million. A year later West Ham was granted the 99-year stadium lease by then-Mayor Boris Johnson in a deal which has been mired in controversy ever since.

A spokesman for Newham said: “The loan is shown, for accounting purposes, as currently ‘impaired’, or damaged, due to the current financial performance of the stadium. It is not a write-off of the loan... it was widely anticipated that the first full year of trading would be particularly challenging.

“Newham council is working with the Greater London Authority, the London Legacy Development Corporation and our other stadium partners on a range of options to improve the financial performance of the stadium. The future value of our loan, and its treatment in our accounts, is directly linked to that future performance.”

Gavros
2:41 Sat Sep 16Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Which is why it'll eventually be sold to us.

Patience.

bankerboy
1:56 Sat Sep 16Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

If our owners were shrewd businessmen with huge bollocks, they would buy this loan from Newham council, perhaps at a discount to the 40m, and due to its impairment call in the loan. If the operators of the stadium can't pay, take the stadium as recovered collateral, and take out the running track and make it a football only stadium. I know that it may seem ridiculous to get a stadium that cost 750m+ In lieu of a 40m pound loan, but a recent study valued the stadium at only 20m, and most cash flow models would value it at between -100m and +50m. Given the terms of our rental agreement, and the obligation of the current owners to host athletics the only way to actually make money on the stadium would be to get a fantastic naming rights deal, and even then it would be barely profitable at best, and given the way things are going on the naming rights front at the moment, still unprofitable in the short to medium term.The fact is, the stadium is worth more, far more to West Ham than to the current owners or any investor, and even then it would be at the cost of forfeiting truly the deal of a lifetime rental agreement.

Gavros
1:40 Sat Sep 16Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

That's a lovely sentiment there.

deanfergi
10:06 Sat Sep 16Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Let's see how the first terror related incident in the borough affects incomings - other than locals celebrating in the streets - visitor/user numbers could drop off drastically amidst all the overdevelopment across the 'parkland '...x a shithole area in 20 years with hints to original hopes and dreams for it slowly fading with time... maybe... or a world class impervious business and leisure park...🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏾✌️🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏻

Capitol Man
3:40 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Could always have allowed it to become derelict,

Sven Roeder
3:23 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Newham residents have a major stadium, an aquatic centre and acres of parkland etc plus employment opportunities at BT Sport & others in the area.Seems cheap for £40m to me.Don't forget the open spaces near the squiggly thing too where you can get a good run up if you want to stab people as well.Just need a few taps that dispense acid and all will be hunky dory.

Gavros
2:37 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

no it doesnt.

if it gets set in football mode, those gaps behind can be turned into SuperPartyDecks

Northern Sold
2:31 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Gavros 1:55 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council' Or just leave it permanently in football mode, Sold0?

Yeah but it looks real shit like that...

Iron Duke
2:27 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Whenever there is bad publicity it suddenly becomes West Ham's stadium.

How do Coe and Livingstone get away without any criticism?

El Scorchio
2:08 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

It's probably in our contract with them that it has to be in 'football mode' during the season.

It's quite the saga and it's probably going to run and run until/if we end up owning it outright.

Gavros
1:55 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Or just leave it permanently in football mode, Sold0?

Trevor B
1:54 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Not exactly a win for the club in terms of capacity though, is it?

Northern Sold
1:50 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Maybe they will just leave the seats in Athletics mode then... save having that monsterous gaps between bottom and top tier...win win for everyone... athletics... football... Boyzone concerts... and monster trucks... no more billions wasted using plastic ties to keep seats together

Gavros
1:21 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Interesting comment here.

Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales said last week the council was working with the Greater London Authority and the LLDC to 'improve the financial performance of the stadium.'

He said: 'It was an honour to host the para-athletics and the IAAF World Championships, but in future years large music concerts are likely to raise more revenue.'

You dont ned to move the seats to have a concert.

Side of Ham
9:38 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Not saying it's so, but could it be this Athletics debt could possibly be paid back by West Ham being there and making use of the stadium and therefore revenue for the council?

It doesn't always have to be West Ham on the take, it could be West Ham are the only chance of recouping any debts/investment into the athletics.

normannomates
2:55 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

The poor loaning the rich...never going to end well.Meanwhile ..the cunt bros and their witch couldn't give a monkeys.

Honestly..it's hard to get a grip on how badly you have all been mugged off.

percyd
2:53 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Read somewhere recently (but can't remember where) that the likelihood is that the OS will pass to Newham's ownership at some point in the relatively near future - 10-20 years depending upon when the current stadium management contract expires or, more likely, is aborted. At which time, who knows, it might become a proper football stadium?

Alfs
2:49 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

Whoever's fault it is, it's a shocking waste of council money, particularly in such an impoverished area.

Local Councils seem to be totally clueless about absolutely everything, that's the big issue here.

gank
2:32 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

We could buy it for 50.

Gavros
2:25 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

It's the commitment to athletics that caused them to write off the loan. Nothing to do with us.

Hopefully they can hope to get some back if UKA do the right thing and fuck off up to Birminham in 2022.

Lily Hammer
1:12 Thu Sep 14Re: £40m loan for West Ham to move into Olympic Stadium 'may never be repaid to council'

I heard West Ham turned the taxpayers into NEWTS!........they'll get better, though......BURN US, ANYWAY!